Track an organizational change process that you have experienced or have researched. What tools were used to manage the change? What else could have been done to generate a willingness to change?

Organizations and enterprises require changes in the processes, production, and organizational structure in order to address changes occurred in the external environment. The biggest challenge for many organizations and enterprises is to adopt changes required by the customers and the external environment. Change in the industry environment is driven by the forces of technology, consumer need, politics, economic growth and a host of other influences. Big organizational changes occurred in the history are related to famous companies including Google, Yahoo, Huawei, British Airways, and Microsoft Inc. Strategic changes occur in the organization with creative action. Innovation and creativity are the need of time. In the present, competitive world organization must require innovation and creativity in the organizational systems to become sustainable and secure in the market. Strategic choice is basically intended as a means of engagement and integration in agency environmental influences, and rationality (MacLean & MacIntosh, 2012).

According to the conducted research on organizational change a famous UK company British Airways is selected to track organizational change process. The British airlines were created in the late 1900s from 4 other companies known as Cambrian, Northeast airlines, BEA and BOAC. At that time total employees working in the organization were more than 50,000 (Troyani, 2017). Staffing was even viewed as oversized but still, British airline started its operations in different areas of the UK and the rest of the world. The airline was also involved in cargo services. Freight of oil gallons and other commercial goods was common in British Airlines. In the 1970s, an incident occurred in which oil crises shrunk the airline's customer base. At that time, the company was facing a problem in managing profitability. Massive staff was a key reason to increase the cost of operations and as a supportive factor to decrease profit margin. In short, the company faced huge financial loss because of massive staff in the organization. The company started the investigation of this financial loss and it resulted in the change of chairperson in 1981.

Lord King the new chairperson noticed that British Airways was operations were inefficient and involved in the wasting of valuable resources. He decided to bring change in the organizational system to increase profit margin and decrease cost. Thus he restructured the overall organizational system by downsizing employees from 59,000 to 39,000. Moreover, chairperson also took the decision to eliminate the unprofitable routes and

The changes were the requirement of the external environment. The competitor companies of British Airways were only providing services to profitable routes. The limited workforce in the competitor organization was also contributing to the increase in their profit and market share maximizing. Moreover, increasing trend of marketing and promotion through digital technology made it essential for British Airways to advertise and market their services and products like their competitors to remain competitive in the market. British Airways introduced new advertisements and marketing campaigns to build a new image of the company in the minds of consumers. In short, the change process was consist of these following activities (Troyani, 2017):

·         Conducting research in the external market to collect information about new requirements and changes.

·         Conducting research within the organization to understand the difference between input and required output and key reasons for this output.

·         Found reasons and eliminated reasons by decreasing employees, changing marketing style, and changing services (as eliminated unprofitable services).  

After adopting these changes British Airways was capable to deliver high profit. According to the records, just in 10 years, small duration British airways was capable to deliver the highest profit of $284 million in its industry.         

The tools used to manage the change were Stakeholder analysis, culture mapping, Gantt charts, and process maps. Organizational management involved planning, controlling, leading, and monitoring in the change management process. They utilized Gantt charts for scheduling activities related to the implementation of the change. Moreover, stakeholder’s analysis tool was also used to consider the interest and requirements of stakeholders in the implementation of change. 

 According to a research study conducted by the Maclean and MacIntosh on the strategic change as creative action willingness to change or move forward is essential to bring changes in the organization. Willingness starts from bringing changes in the belief and later on result in the change of behavior. The mind is the creative part of the body that deals with the feelings and vague impulses to action. We can deliberately or involuntarily lose control of the body – a key part of creativity – and action is enabled by the subjective presence of a ‘body schema' (i.e. a background awareness of the body's configuration. British Airways modified the behavior of employees and particularly managerial staff to control the wastage of valuable resources. Moreover, changes in the vision of pay more focus on the increase of profitability changed the behavior of employees and increased readiness to adopt changes (MacLean & MacIntosh, 2012 (Troyani, 2017)).          

1.      Choose an industry facing fundamental technology change (e.g. the recorded music industry vs digital technology, computer software vs open-source, newspapers vs the Internet, corporate IT services vs cloud computing…). In relation to one leading player in the industry, discuss the problems posed by the new technology.

Fundamental Technology Change 

Technology never remains the same. In our modern world, technology is changing with the advancement of science and new experiments. Now communication and information technology are changing in such a way that will result in the change of businesses also. The captured value, way of production, way of interaction within and outside the organization, and overall organizational systems are getting change in response to changes occurred in the organization. Technology has made it possible for organizations to easily communicate and interact with the customers and stakeholders (Cascio & Montealegre, 2016). Moreover, rapid production and improved manufacturing system are also the results of advancement in the technologies. Basically, technology has changed each and every industry but the most influenced industries are recorded music industry vs digital technology, computer software vs open-source, newspapers vs the Internet, corporate IT services vs cloud computing. Conducted reach on technological change and impact on the leading player in the industry indicated that Amazon is getting advantages as well as facing problems posed by the new technology. Technology changes are generating effects on labor or workforce, jobs, electronic monitoring systems, shipment, robots, supply chain, customer interaction, and productivity within industries.  

Amazon works in the e-commerce industry with cloud computing integration systems. For instance, Kiva robots used in the Amazon warehouses have made it possible for the organization to fetch racks with ordered goods, find goods across the large warehouse, and deliver packages to the customers. Robots are replacing a human being in the organization as a result of this microenvironment is also getting change. Jobs replaced by the robots is the key problem that can cause to influence the image of the organization in society (Cascio & Montealegre, 2016). Amazon is creating a negative image in the society as a result of continuous downsizing of workforce in the warehouses. Somehow, technology is also resulting in an increase in competition that will influence sales of Amazon. Other competitor companies are adopting modern digital ways of marketing and advertisement. Moreover, teleconferences and virtual teams are also supporting an increase in sales. Cloud computing also has security issues that cause problems. Data breaches and external access cases are quite common that all were caused by the poor systems of information and communication technologies. Somehow, evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of advancement and changes in the technology we can say that most of the organizatio, particularly leading organizations take more advantage of the technological change as compared to the other competitor. Somehow, for this, it is essential for the organization to have a flexible system to rapidly jump on the new technologies. Research studies have also proved that technology is making easy for organizations to deal with the customers as they no longer required to have face to face interaction. Amazon customers can communicate and ask queries from the support team to get an overview of the new products. Customers can contact the support team through the use of advanced information technology (Cascio & Montealegre, 2016). As a result of this, their buying decision can be managed easily. New technologies sometimes come up with negative consequences in such way organizations may face a challenging and problematic situation.         

Conclusion on Fundamental Technology Change 

Summing up the discussion about the technological change in the organizations, it can be said that the change in the industry environment is determined by the technology forces, politics, consumer need, economic development and a host of other effects. Strategic choice is essentially planned as a means of integration and engagement in agency environmental effects, and rationality. The airline was a part of the cargo services. Freight of commercial goods and oil gallons was common in British Airlines. In the 1970s, an event occurred in which oil disasters contracted the airline's customer base. In the competitor organization, the limited workforce was also contributing to the rise in profit and maximizing market share. British Airways presented new marketing and advertisements campaigns to shape a new image of the company in the consumers’ minds.

The tools used to deal with the change were culture mapping, stakeholder analysis, process maps and Gantt charts. Willingness starts from carrying changes in the certainty and afterwards result in the behaviour change. British Airways adopted the employee’s behaviour and mainly decision-making staff to control the wastage of valuable resources. Furthermore, swift production and improved manufacturing system are the results of development in technologies. Robots are substituting humans in the organization as an effect of the microenvironment is change. External access and data breaches cases are fairly common that all were initiated by the poor systems of communication and information technologies. The customers in Amazon can ask queries and communicate from the support team to get a new products overview.

 References of Critical Thinking- Strategic Planning